NEWS
‘SAY (CHESHIRE) CHEESE!’: Hays Travel North West has opened its 38th store. The new shop, in Northwich, Cheshire, creates six jobs and is the latest addition by the agency, which is 40% owned by Hays Travel, as it seeks to reach 50 branches by the end of 2020. Around £70,000 was spent on transforming the former shoe shop, which has a bureau de change. Pictured from left are Carys Ryder, Ellie Walton, Sam Wharton, Rebekah Gate, Gemma Dudley, Leanne Shillito and Katherine McDonnell, all Hays Travel North West.
InteleTravel kicks out two agents for ‘breach of rules’
Ben Ireland
Two InteleTravel UK agents have been thrown out of the controversial homeworking organisation for “creating an unauthorised secret Facebook group”. Andy Stoute and Vikki Wood had
their InteleTravel franchise contracts terminated last week for “behaviour that goes against their
InteleTravel.com contract” and “atempting to hide it”. Te pair, who were new to travel
when they signed up with the agency in May, set up private Facebook group ‘Unofficial InteleTravel – No Rules’, which they said at one stage had 20 members. Tey said it was formed due
to a lack of support from “upliners” [more-experienced agents]. But InteleTravel said use of
travelweekly.co.uk
its name without permission was a breach of its terms and conditions, and stood by its decision. Stoute, who runs a recruitment
business, said: “We started the [unofficial] group because I got kicked out of the official group for asking questions. We’re not in China; they can’t stop us talking to each other.” He added: “Te
comments of hers had been deleted from InteleTravel’s Facebook group. “[Other] people told me their
STORY TOP
reason we started the group was because we got no support whatsoever. We are genuinely interested in the business opportunity of selling travel and wanted to learn the industry. “Tere are a lot of other groups
with the InteleTravel name. You can’t tell me they were all given permission.” Vikki Wood, who also runs
her own foot health business, said
comments had been deleted too,” she added. “We were told that was because they were negative. “I thought asking awkward questions was helpful – even if they’re basic. We all have different backgrounds and experiences. I set the group up
so we could help each other.” A spokesperson for
InteleTravel, which gained Abta membership in March and now claims to have more than 3,500 UK agent sign-ups, said it has a “zero tolerance” approach to any breach of its terms and that training, supplier information and self-development was available on back-office systems and through advice from colleagues.
“InteleTravel takes education and
support seriously,” the spokesperson said. “Our regulatory training to allow agents to trade with partners is mandatory and we have a full programme of training, events and support.” InteleTravel added that, “like most
homeworking companies”, it will atract sign-ups who “are not suited to the travel sector”, but said “the majority of our audience are satisfied”. Both Stoute and Wood
indicated they were looking at other homeworking opportunities in travel.
22 AUGUST 2019 5
PICTURE: Jane Widdowson
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